Something remarkable is happening in a state better known for iron ore, bauxite and cyclones. In the space of barely twelve months, Odisha has moved from the margins of India’s digital infrastructure map to the centre of its most ambitious data centre announcements. The question an economist must ask is not whether this is exciting ~ it plainly is ~ but whether the arithmetic of power, water and people has been done with the same enthusiasm as the press releases. The headline numbers are extraordinary by any standard.

In July 2026, HCLTech signed a memorandum of understanding with the Odisha government and the AI startup Sarvam to build its first AI data centre inside the proposed Odisha Sovereign AI Park in Bhubaneswar, with a planned capital outlay of Rs 14,257 crore ~ roughly $1.5 billion ~ which includes financial assistance from the state. Alongside it, HCLTech will set up a Global Technology Centre in Bhubaneswar at a cost of about Rs 730 crore, designed to house more than 5,000 employees and expected to begin operations by 2028.

Taken together, the package is valued at over Rs 15,000 crore and represents HCLTech’s first AI data centre anywhere in India. Then, in early August 2026, came a proposal that dwarfs even that: the Adani Group has proposed investing Rs 1 trillion ~ one lakh crore rupees ~ to establish a 1 gigawatt, AI-focused data centre in Odisha, seeking around 250 acres of land, with Cuttack mentioned as a tentative location. Business Standard reports this as the biggest investment ever proposed by an Indian company in the country’s data centre sector, second overall only to Google’s intended facility in Andhra Pradesh.

The proposal is under detailed evaluation, with the state examining land, power, water and connectivity requirements before it goes to the high-level clearance authority. These marquee projects sit atop a broader pipeline. Adani already holds an earlier MoU for a Rs 800 crore hyperscale data centre in the state. Zoho Corporation is building a Rs 306 crore facility in Khordha. The Reserve Bank of India’s Rs 169 crore data centre is nearing completion, and the state government is developing its own Rs 266.48 crore next-generation data centre.

CtrlS and Yotta have pledged involvement, and an undersea cable landing station is being developed at Puri – a genuinely strategic piece of infrastructure that would give Odisha direct international connectivity rather than routing through Mumbai or Chennai. The state’s IT Policy 2025 targets five global capability centre hubs and positions Odisha explicitly as a data centre destination. The national context explains the rush.

India’s data centre market was valued at about $9.79 billion in 2025 and is projected to more than double to roughly $21 billion by 2031. Wood Mackenzie estimates the country’s data centre........

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